180
READING PASSAGE 10
Gifted children and learning
A
Internationally, ‘giftedness’ is most frequently determined by a score on a general intelligence test, known
as an IQ test, which
is above a chosen cutoff point, usually at around the top 2-5%. Children’s
educational environment contributes to the IQ score and the way intelligence is used. For example, a very
close positive relationship was found when children’s IQ scores were compared with their home educational
provision (Freeman, 2010). The higher the children’s IQ scores, especially over IQ 130, the better the quality
of their educational backup, measured in terms of reported verbal interactions with parents,
number of books
and activities in their home etc. Because IQ tests are decidedly influenced by what the child has learned, they
are to some extent measures of current achievement based on age-norms; that is, how well the children have
learned to manipulate their knowledge and know-how within the terms of the test. The vocabulary aspect, for
example, is dependent on having heard those words. But IQ tests can neither identify the processes of learning
and thinking nor predict creativity.
B
Excellence does not emerge without appropriate help. To reach an exceptionally high standard in any area
very able children
need the means to learn, which includes material to work with and focused challenging
tuition -and the encouragement to follow their dream. There appears to be a qualitative difference in the way
the intellectually highly able think, compared with more average-ability or older pupils, for
whom external regulation by the teacher often compensates for lack of internal regulation. To be at their most
effective in their self-regulation, all children can be helped to identify their own ways of learning –
metacognition – which will include strategies of planning, monitoring,
evaluation, and choice of what to learn.
Emotional awareness is also part of metacognition, so children should be helped to be aware of their feelings
around the area to be learned, feelings of curiosity or confidence, for example.
C
High achievers have been found to use self-regulatory learning strategies more often and more effectively
than lower achievers, and are better able to transfer these strategies to deal with unfamiliar tasks. This happens
to such a high degree in some children that they appear to be demonstrating talent in particular areas.
Overviewing research on the thinking process of highly able
children, (Shore and Kanevsky, 1993) put the instructor’s problem succinctly: ‘If they [the gifted] merely think
more quickly, then .we need only teach more quickly. If they merely make
fewer errors, then we can shorten
the practice’. But of course, this is not entirely the case; adjustments have to be made in methods of learning
and teaching, to take account of the many ways individuals think.
D
Yet in order to learn by themselves, the gifted do need some support from their teachers. Conversely,
teachers who have a tendency to ‘overdirect’ can diminish their gifted pupils’ learning autonomy. Although
‘spoon-feeding’ can produce extremely high
examination results, these are not always followed by equally
impressive life successes. Too much dependence on the teachers risks loss of autonomy and motivation to
discover. However, when teachers o pupils to reflect on their own learning and thinking activities,
they increase their pupils’ self-regulation. For a young child, it may be just the simple question ‘What have
you learned today?’ which helps them to recognise what they are doing. Given that a fundamental goal of
education is to transfer the control of learning from teachers to pupils, improving pupils’ learning to learn
techniques should be a majoroutcome of the
school experience, especially for the highly competent. There are
quite a number of new methods which can help, such as child- initiated learning, ability-peer tutoring, etc.
Such practices have been found to be particularly useful for bright children from deprived areas.
E
But scientific progress is not all theoretical, knowledge is a so vital to outstanding performance: individuals
who know a great deal about a specific domain will achieve at a higher level than those who do not (Elshout,
1995). Research with creative scientists by Simonton (1988) brought him to the conclusion that above a certain
high level, characteristics such as independence seemed to contribute more to
reaching the highest levels
of expertise than intellectual skills, due to the great demands of effort and time needed for learning and
181
practice. Creativity in all forms can be seen as expertise se mixed with a high level of motivation (Weisberg,
1993).
F
To sum up, learning is affected by emotions of both
the individual and significant others. Positive emotions facilitate the creative aspects of earning and negative
emotions inhibit it. Fear, for example, can limit the development of curiosity, which is a strong force in
scientific advance, because it motivates problem-solving behaviour. In Boekaerts’ (1991) review of emotion
the learning of very high IQ and
highly achieving children, she found emotional forces in harness. They were
not only curious, but often had a strong desire to control their environment, improve their learning efficiency
and increase their own learning resources.
